Impressed by Richard Sherman

[BmorePat87]

(09-15-2015, 12:19 PM)JustWinBaby Wrote: But isn't that really an excuse for decades of failed affirmative action?  At what point do we start to question whether it's simple correlation and not causation? 

Not to mention the entire concept of institutional racism is essentially based off a perception of unequal outcomes, which is not the same as saying unequal opportunity or equal ability.

I don't know if I really believe in the concept of affirmative action. I get the benefits of trying to get minorities more involved in certain fields and included in school, but at the expense of others who may be more qualified it certainly isn't right. I don't know if that really has much to do with what I was saying, though.

We have statistics that show that white people make up 70% of those arrested by 40% of the prison population. Black people are also 40% of the prison population, but only 28% of those arrested. The average sentence for violent crimes is 1 year longer for black people. White people are more likely to get probation. Black kids are 7 times more likely than white kids to be sentenced to adult prison. Most homicide victims are black but most people on death row are there for killing white people. White people and black people use pot at near identical rates, but black people are 2 to 3 times more likely to be arrested for possession. 

I don't necessarily think it's a stretch to say unequal outcome exists. I agree that equality of ability is not a real thing. This isn't Harrison Bergeron. Equality of opportunity is certainly a goal and, at this point, it's probably more of an economic thing than racial thing in most places. The one argument you can make is that most of these differences have more to do with socioeconomic status.